Dragon Tamer, Human Friend
by Draconicality
Summary: The story of a new guardian.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Okay, MA! is not mine. Ni'khali is. Rakkmire is. Sssirukk is.  Pretty much every-character-with-a-name-you-don't-see-in-the-show is... all these will be properly introduced later.   
  


Rewritten from it's original ugly glory of two years back.

Welcome to my world.

~-~-~-~-~  
  
**Dragon Tamer, Human Friend - Prologue**

  
  
"Prince Rapses is missing!" The words spread like wildfire through the palace, alerting servants and royalty alike.  The queen's scream reverberated along the stone columns, stirring all back into the waking world with a pang of fear.  As Ja-Kal, chief among the royal hunters and leader of the prince's unwary guardians, raced through the corridors, panic quickening his footsteps, he was quietly followed.

Golden-green eyes glimmered softly from the shadows of a stone column, their owner trailing quietly in the man's wake.

_Time…there is so little time!_  
  
*******   
  
She crested a dune, hissing as her feet sank into burning sand.  Human form was such a _nuisance! _

All discomforts were forgotten as her eyes found the scene below her.  The flat-topped pyramid was almost lost in a morass of chaos, the five humans and their chariot being slowly but surely overwhelmed in the midst of the artificial army – Shabti, were they called?  She muttered a curse under her breath at the hopelessness of the scene.

Below, three of the stone soldiers at the fringes spotted her, beginning a clumsy climb up the shifting sands.  One grabbed for her foot – she kicked at it ineffectually and began swearing as it pulled her downwards.  Pulling a thin dark staff from where it had been slung across her back, she brought it down hard on the Shabti's head, which crumbled, as did the rest of it.  She then swept it down across the other two's feet, watching them tumble down the dune.

_This isn't going to work…help me, goddess, and grant me your power…_

The answer came in the form of a prickling, down her spine and out along her limbs, and a deep-set aching as her body began a familiar transformation.  Her skull split and warped into a snout, weak human teeth sinking back into her jaw to be replaced by a set of flesh-ripping fangs.  As claws melted out of her fingernails, blades slid painlessly through her skin.  The ache redoubled fiercely at her neck, shoulders and the base of her spine, as extensions entirely foreign to her previous body made themselves manifest.  She was no longer even the least bit human, her angry thoughts melding themselves with something alien, reptilian, bloodthirsty.

_I am…the Dragon.  I must protect my Prince._

She launched herself angrily at the Shabti, heedless of the injuries dealt to her delicate wings as she fought to reach the other guardians, already failing and being overwhelmed.  Scores of the lifeless warriors crashed into pieces at her saurian feet…yet more kept coming.

Quicker than thought, something dark rippled across the corner of her vision.  She hissed, bringing the blades on her wrists up to counter – too late.   Three bloody gashes burned across her shoulder without warning; she cried out and lashed at empty air.  Within the span of a second something blurred and struck again, sending her flying.  She gave a thin, angered screech, launching herself into the air, away from the constriction of the Shabti and more than ready to face what had suddenly barred her path.  _"Show yourself."_

The hidden shadow materialized in front of her, lazily beating his wings in an imitation of her movements.  Her eyes widened, fear and rage mingling within their depths.  _"You."___

**_Hello, Ni'khali-Sssirukk – or am I to call you Ni'ssiruk? _**he replied…casual, almost polite.  **_How nice of you to join me – it is such a wonderful day to die.  _**His voice was hers, in inverse – low, deep, piercing her to the core.  He dove for her throat.

_"Contrary as always."__  Her voice deepened into wary amusement, the Goddess portion of the mingled human and dragon showing through as their blades clashed.  _"How do you know you can beat me?  You are my shadow.  You have always been my shadow and my opponent.  If I were not manifest on this earth, you would not be.  If I was on Scarab's side, you would be on the Pharaoh's.  So predictable.  You are _nothing __but a nuisance, Rakkmire, dark-half."_

He yawned delicately, slashing (she dodged, but barely) at her underbelly.  **_Perhaps not so._****__**

****

And then came the tail, it's blades plunging deep into her underbelly as she emitted a pained gasp.  Already weakening and paralyzed with agony, she pushed feebly at the black objects protruding from her body.  He laughed, shredding the membrane of her wings as the shadow-spines withdrew themselves from her vital organs with a sickening noise.  

_"I will…return…and you know it."_

He looked into the dimming eyes and bared his teeth.  **_Well and good!  How boring it shall be without you in this life…ah, but that cannot be helped.  I hear your own guardians calling, little girl, broken gold-half.  I will claim them._**

****

Copper faded, guttering to green-gold.  The golden dragon's voice was suddenly a young girl's, frightened and hoarse.  "No!  You can't!  You wouldn't!"

**_Ah, is the child frightened for a certain someone, _then?  I must remember that!  __**

And he was gone, as suddenly as he had come.  His laughter echoed in her ears, mingled with the noises of clashing metal, the sound of crumbling clay, and the screams of pain, blood-scent filling her nose.

_It's over…I've failed…he CAN'T/no it can't be i am immortal this isn't possible--_

A golden dragon fell, a human girl struck.

  
*******   
  
In the chaos and the carnage, the Pharaoh's searching troops never found Ni'khali's tattered form.   
  
One dragon did.   
  


~-~-~-~-~

Mou…and that is it for revision of the first chapter.  I know I haven't written any of this in…forever… *wonders if she'll ever finish it*

It's sad, the way the MA! following has dwindled over the years…

~Draconicality, January 2, 2004


	2. Interlude: To Search, To Find, To Weep

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

I just realized how godawful BAD my writing was two years back – short, clipped, no details almost, too quickly-paced, Mary-Sue-ish, etc. etc.  I hope to remedy that, really.

So, as of January 2, 2004, another completed revision for this interlude.     
  
~-~-~-~-~  
  
   
  
Blood, it's everywhere.  I coast above the desert sands frantically, working my wings to the point of exhaustion in the cool, still night air.  The scene below me is horrific – bile rises in my throat at the crimson-stained rubble strewn like the pieces of a child's broken plaything.  The cloyingly sweet stench of death rises to meet my nostrils.   
  
_My parents...my parents..._  I give an involuntary moan, landing clumsily next to their mangled forms.  Mother's eyes are vacant white circles in her head, which is skewed at the most unnatural angle.  I shudder and close them, bowing my head in respect as grief chokes my throat.  Father must have lasted longer – his feathers, shockingly, retain a hint of their former warmth still.  I try not to look at the shattered ruin that was his chest, but I can't help myself.   
  
Dragon eyes are good…far too good.   
  
My mother and my father have been taken from me.  I roar fury at the unfeeling heavens, at the calm round moon that would dare to shine over this horror.  

I have found those closest to my heart but one.  Where is my charge?  Where is the one that I hope against hope still breathes, despite all the logic that says it can no longer be?

*******   
  


  
I find what's left of her at dawn, the glinting of the amulet at her neck finally catching my eye.  I lift the tiny, broken shell of her, a horrible feeling sinking down into my chest and stomach as I survey the terrible wounds that have dyed her clothes crimson-black and the entirely wrong way she hangs in my forearms, evidence of bones that have snapped like sticks.   
  
Cradling her body gently in my talons, I take off on the slowly warming breeze. Back to the Duneden for burial.   
  
And as I fly, as the sun begins to rise, I flame into the placid skies.  Rage transforms the blue flicker to a white hot burst that singes the very clouds themselves.  
  
I know who did this deed, and he is the one this flame is intended for.  I will have Rakkmire dead, if I must give up my very soul to do it.   
  
  
*******   
  
  
Dark tentacles enveloped the writhing form at their mist, muffling enraged cries.  A shadowy form watched in pleasure as the one he had lain in wait to trap, the one that had mattered most to _her, _slowly stilled, the horror draining out of azure oculars that brightened gradually to dull crimson.  As he glided into the Gate, the tentacles with their precious cargo followed him willingly.

Oh, yes.  In a few thousand years, he would be back to claim his victory in the best way possible.

~-~-~-~-~

Ah, there.  It's always nice to see how much one's work can improve.

Don't get me wrong – DTHF is not dead yet.  I used to have plans for this to be my most extensive series.  Those plans have never died, they've just been…forced back quite a bit.

~Draconicality, January 2, 2004


	3. The Dragon Awakes, Part 1

Chapter 2

Kaliya Meyers woke in a state of incredible shock.

It had been three months since they'd moved to San Francisco.  Three months since something had triggered the dreams.

She gripped her forehead, feeling the chill dampness of her sweat.  Dear lord, her dreams had been wild, all right, but this was too much.

Making her way quietly to the bathroom, she splashed water on her face and stared in the mirror.

She'd never known anything before life with her adoptive parents, the Meyers.  She knew the story of how they'd found her, a lost little baby, on an expedition to Egypt.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror.  She had a thin face with high, delicate cheekbones, big dark eyes, and a short mess of dark brown hair.

What in the world...?

The image was blurring.  The features were changing.  Kaliya almost screamed as she found herself looking at _the girl._

She was taller than Kaliya by a few inches, her skin a shade lighter.  Hypnotically beautiful green eyes that swirled with blue and gold met Kaliya's startled gaze.  Her hair was incredibly long and thick, ebony with startling streaks of reddish-brown and gold.  Her clothes!  They could only be that of an Ancient Egyptian, the short, sleeveless white top, edged with green, and the richly decorated kilt, green-edged white to match the top.  From the buckle, fashioned as a magnificent deep-green stone, the decorative strip of cloth that fell down the kilt's middle was embroidered with a dizzying pattern of gold and blue triangles.

Yet Kaliya's eyes were drawn away from the girl's features to the pendant.

The pendant.

THE PENDANT.

Suddenly, her head throbbed painfully, making her dizzy and causing her to grab the edge of the sink.  The clear image of the Egyptian girl melted away.

Yet the clear command in Kaliya's brain did not.

~Regnos~

She cried out, dragging herself from the bathroom, back to her room.  Feverishly, she began to throw on her clothes – she was going out.

~Pluribos~

Without really thinking, she crept to the front door, unlocking it and slipping out into the night.

Towards the museum.  Towards the pendant.

~Serpios~

She could not remember exactly how she got in, or how her footsteps guided her towards the newest exhibit.  But there she stood, gazing at the display case in the center of the room.

~Unum~

Swift as thought, she had opened the display case and gazed at the object that lay in her fist.

Dangling from a black leather thong, the golden dragon's-head pendant danced on its string.  The swirling stone on its forehead began to glow with an eerie light.

~Regnos Pluribos Serpios Unum~

And as Kaliya Meyers pulled the pendant around her neck, an incredible display took place.

First her hair, shooting out its length, turning pure white, dancing in the fierce wind that had kicked up in the little chamber.

Then indeed, her entire being changed.  The familiar Egyptian clothes shimmered into existence on her body, even as bandages swathed her form.  Vibrantly swirling, multicolored eyes took in the chaotic room.  Her skin turned gray, her very insides disappeared.

And finally, finally...

Her heart ceased to beat.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*

Cool, huh?  I dreamed up this little twist a long time ago, but it didn't come out right for a long time.  Hope ya liked it as much as me.  ^_^


End file.
